


Regretfully Yours, Gellert

by panther



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 18:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4971100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gellert is starved of information by his keepers but he has heard enough to know that Lord Voldemort will come one day and he will ask about the wand. He is ready for him and if silence is the only thing he can offer his past lover after death then that is what he will provide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regretfully Yours, Gellert

When the thing people call Lord Voldemort appears in at the door of his cell, Gellert does not bother looking up from where he is braiding together loose threads at the bottom of his robes. He knew Tom Riddle would come one day and he knew why so he does not need to ask or give him any sort of attention. The only person Gellert ever owned anything to is dead. The death of Albus has been one of the rare pieces of news conveyed to Gellert over the years and it is the only reason he knows how long he has been languishing in his cell. He cannot reveal it was he who killed Arianna as he kept that secret too long out of spite. It was an accident. 

The force of her magic pushed Gellert to the side just as he sent a strong blasting hex and turned the wand on Arianna herself. Albus then sent both Ariana and Gellert flying backwards as Aberforth's wand exploded with a blinding light. When the dust settled Gellert could hardly stand and Arianna was dead. Arianna was precisely the sort of the witch Gellert wanted his new world to help. She was a beautiful and animated child who deserved more than being a prisoner in a golden cage. He and Albus could have raised her together like a proper family and given her opportunities beyond her imagination. 

What he _can_ do for Albus now however is foil this creature's plans for as long as possible. Dark magic is powerful, beautiful even, but what this man has become is far beyond what magic should allow to happen of that Gellert is sure. It grinds on Gellert that the world now says Voldemort is the most powerful Dark Wizard in history when he finds it rich to even claim Voldemort is even human anymore. Information about the wand is demanded and at first Gellert just continues to braid his threads and adjust his thin blankets. They are so worn that they will probably be replaced soon and that will be good for the upcoming winter. It would be nice if he were allowed to keep the old ones to cover the cold stone floors but his keepers, whoever they are because he does not actually know, fear he will take his own life. Surely they must realise that if he has still here after all this time he is not going to try anything. People have always confused Gellert. 

His mind turns to the wand. The Unbeatable Wand. The Elder Wand. What a load of rubbish. The Wand has passed from owner to owner since the beginning of Wizarding time and no owner of it has remained unbeaten or undefeated. Hence the vast number of owners the cursed thing has had. Gellert wished he had worked that out, well, a good century or so ago. It is best remaining where it is. Buried. With any luck one day it might be forgotten and become nothing more than part of a bedtime story but Gellert has not been away from the world so long that he truly thinks that is possible. More questions. More silence. Then it is easy to mock and deny and amuse himself really. He is under no illusions. This confrontation was only ever going to end one way and that is with his keepers coming to provide him dinner and finding a body. Of course, that implies his keepers are still alive themselves. If they were around the fortress outside of their twice daily feeding trips then they will have been slain. 

It angers him to think this creature will destroy the tomb of his old foe and lover to get to the wand. The wand never stopped Albus from defeating Gellert and it is not going to stop the boy Potter from defeating Voldemort if he is capable. That is one part of history Gellert does not know. Mentions appeared in the paper his guards allowed him for a day when Albus died but it only had flickers of the details he craved. Still he knows enough to know this boy is called the Chosen One and if Albus believed in him then Gellert feels he has to as well. Sometimes information is thrown from his keepers like bones to a starved dog, to taunt him about the world he has been shut away from. 

The more he is asked to talk the more he laughs. Gellert is not the one afraid of death. He has had a long time to come to terms with the idea and indeed everything he had done as a younger man. He still believes in his idea that the separation of Magic and Muggle aids neither world and especially harms Muggleborn children but his methods are another story. Those he regrets. At its heart his ideas were about peace and an end to fear of discovery. Muggles murder each other in their millions while Wizards tip toe around them. It just seemed farcical. Then he murdered and created orphans and struck terror into hears across the Wizarding world. He brought out the worst in people and turned Wizards into far worse monsters than witch-burners of old could ever have been. 

He became a hypocrite. 

He refuses to die as one. 

Albus beat him fair and square and so it feels wrong to aid the man that killed him. 

At least he knows he was never able to make progress on finding either of the other Hallows and _that_ sort of discovery is certainly something that would have been thrown in his face. So they remain hidden. Or if they are in someone's possession they cannot possibly understand what they have. As long as that remains the case there is hope. Mastering the wand is not mastering death. 

His fingers fall from the threads on his robes and he sits a little straighter on the bed. Lord Voldemort loses his patience and then there is green light and finally the end comes for Gellert.


End file.
